The Lower School visual art program encourages inquiry, discovery, and wonder.

Our program supports an interdisciplinary experience that helps to expand student understanding of artistic concepts, cultural traditions and the context of artwork in art history. Through aesthetic inquiry and group discussions, students are able to compare and describe works of art and make meaningful observations about the work they see in the world around them.

Creating art promotes self-awareness, problem-solving skills and the ability to consider multiple viewpoints.

The scaffolded introduction of art vocabulary, the elements, and principles of design and artistic techniques strengthens students’ ability to work independently and feel successful and enthusiastic about the artwork they create.

Students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of art projects throughout the year, working both individually and collaboratively.
 

The Middle School visual arts program emphasizes the close examination of concepts, ideas, and processes through project-based experiences with a variety of materials and tools.

Knowledge, skills, and learning are developed in a format of discussion, decision-making, and practice. Students are guided through sequential steps in planning, designing, and choosing effective compositions, techniques, and materials in order to successfully accomplish project goals.

Through their exploration of visual art, students have the opportunity to build skills and also to express their understanding and experience of the world through their creations.

Our program emphasizes connections between artistic and academic disciplines and historical, cultural, and real-world contexts through observation, conversation, research and art-making. Over their four years in Middle School, students receive a strong foundation in drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, mixed media, and multi-media sculpture.

Activities that relate to other subject areas and opportunities to work with artists both within and outside the AFS community strengthen the ways that students connect the visual arts to the broader world.
 

The Upper School visual art program encompasses a broad range of media and techniques, with courses offered in Drawing, Painting & Printmaking, Ceramics and Photography.

Visual arts teachers at AFS introduce students to the tools, skills and history of each discipline and provide opportunities for them to explore and express their personal experience. The arts classroom is a communal and collaborative environment, which encourages young artists to examine both their own processes and those of their peers.

The skills, curiosity and passions nurtured in students of the arts will influence their development as thinkers, innovators and citizens throughout their lifetimes.

The visual arts program is sequential in nature, allowing each student to build upon the skills taught in the course previous to it. This hands-on program is designed to engage students fully in the mastery of the tools, materials and techniques necessary for creative visual expression.